Gita, Came home and crashed about 6pm last night and then was up about 2am. Guess it will take me awhile to get back on track. Hey take a look at this thread.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1302747/
New Projects in the Mid-Atlantic almost spring 2013
My project yesterday was to transplant the blackberries which meant first dig three bushes,some yuccas,and few other plants, making a new border recycling waste from a granite counter making place, setting the post and line to attach the plants in their new location. All this was done in about 5 hours. Not bad . Next redo one of the flower bed on the other side of the yard where I had the veggie garden last year. Never a dull moment ....
orchidfancy, great project! Looks super.
Did you haul that granite home yourselves? Did they advertise it or did you ask?
I think those borders are really neat. I just may have to check in with our local supplier. We have one just on top of Resser's summit,(about 4-5 miles).
My own renovations are on hold, I had carpel tunnel surgery (again) on my right hand last Monday, I go Wednesday to have the stitches out and schedule the left side (again). Hope they can do it within a week because my garden is calling me. I think this time I'm going push for cold laser and ultrasonic treatments in an attempt to reduce scar tissue. Last time it wasn't even brought up. I guess I did learn a few things by sawing my finger. LOL I don't want to do this again in 5 years.
Sorry1 This is Ric, apparently Holly was logged in here.
This message was edited Mar 18, 2013 5:47 PM
So is this Ric or Holly talking? I don't recall Holly sawing her finger.... and I do recall Ric having bouts of carpal tunnel!
LOL, Caught him Happy......... and he said I would be the first to stumble using his ID. LOL
I have an edging idea of my own. My Dad did this edging where he set one brick level with the ground and then right behind it he set one on edge it looks really good. He used some type of liquid cement to bond it all together. I want to do that in the secret garden area. Then around the small raised rose bush bed add a row of blue wine bottles behind the brick on edge. It would make it a bit higher and I use a few small blue and white garden art items in that bed.
HollyAnn; I sympatize with you I had carpel tunnel surgery several year ago and I could use another surgery for tendon release in two of my fingers , but this will be on hold until fall , garden season is in....
I go to one or two local granite counter makers they have discard in their dumpster or piled in the back of their location. I asked if I could have some of their discards and I just helped myself. I did a whole sidewalk several years ago , one section at the time , my husband provided carrying the granite and the concrete then I was left to my own device after that for he has no clue of what i am trying to do. The man is wonderful but he is not a gardener or a handy man . So long as it involve A/C, refrigeration or electricity he is the best , do not give him a paint brush, a hammer or a trowel , he does not like it. He helps with the heavy stuff..
.After i am done with most of the garden things I have another section of sidewalk to do about 12 feet x 3.5 and it will be graded so it is level with the existing sidewalk. we also have fence and gate repairs to do. I also have used the blue champagne bottles that I get for one of my borders I love the effect , I break it with few bottle of my favorite wine that have nice seals like the Chateauneuf Du Pape , not many of those they are pricey...
Orchidfancy, That was Ric talking about the carpel tunnel. He accidentally posted under my name. It's driving him crazy right now having me pick up and carry everything. He had been pretty good trying to follow directions but I know that while I was away he did more than maybe he should have.
She got me! Left herself logged in on my computer. I'll go back and fix it. LOL
Ric--
MY computer???? Your own user name now?? I thought you shared everything....
Did you decide to shell out the $20 for your own membership on DG? HUH?
Whose computer is the one in the kitchen? Hope it is yours--as you are in there all the time
cooking away.
Hating this weather! SOOOO cold today--and now it has been raining all day.
I suppose, somewhere else, all this rain is snow. I should be grateful....
Gita
Ric are you going to have the carpel tunnel surgery? I had it, it was nice not to have a tingling pain all night in my hand and forearm. I need to be more cautious and wear my brace when I do work or I am on the computer I can feel it creeping back up from over doing it. Happy late birthday Gitagal . Where is spring ? I am still waiting for it , the sun has been barely visible this month , there again I should not complain at least we do not have ice or snow .....I have project to work on outside .....
Orchidfancy, Ric had carpel tunnel about 5 or 6 years ago and he needs revisions done. He had one done 2 weeks ago and will have the other one done soon.
Question for you. As you all know, I've been planting my awful front hill. At the very top is a small grassy area. It occurred to me this morning that there is no demarcation between the grassy are and the area I planted. In addition, there is erosion where the rain pours down the hill. I'm thinking about a border of clumping liriope, since it is tough as nails and might break up the streams of rainwater a bit. I'm not a huge liriope fan, but it might work well for this purpose. I'd have to buy at least 100 plants (spacing 12" apart), so if this would look tacky or would be a mistake please let me know.
Any suggests for the best cultivars of Lirope muscari (the Liriope that doesn't run), if you agree that would make a good edger?
I did find 100 plants of Big Blue on ebay for $75 -- I'm sure they are tiny. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=28sean&&_trksid=p2047675.l2560&rt=nc&iid=130868384287&sspagename=VIP:feedback&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller - but as I look at it more, though it says "Big Blue", I bet it isn't that cultivar.
Classy Groundcovers has that cultivar for $0.87 cents a plant -- less if I buy 250 or more (which I might need to do, because I bet their plants are tiny).
This message was edited Mar 19, 2013 11:02 AM
Happy, 100 liriope plants would be too many for me personally to trim each year, although some varieties need less maintainence to look good than others. Your grassy area with drainage probs sounds like a great spot for a "rain garden" application (plants that soak up excess water quickly and are usually native and don't mind wet feet at times) I have been impressed with Winterberry shrubs/trees for wettish applications and they are recommended plants for rain gardens, Check out the pic at the top of this link and see if it might work for you.
http://www.homesteadgardens.com/plant-of-the-month-winterberry-holly/
ps most reliable daffodil for me is 'Ice Follies' 35+ years!
Thanks Coleup. I looked into a rain garden, but concluded it wouldn't work because my awful hill does not include a soggy valley -- instead all a steep clay slope. So rain washes down it fast rather than soaking in, and digs little rivulets in the course of that. The soil is really never soggy. I want something to break up the rain as it washes over the hil.
That was my worry about the liriope -- that it would be just too much. It would be a single row of it, but a very long one serving as an edging....
Thanks for the suggestion of Ice Follies. It should blend nicely with the masses of Carlton I have....
Holly---
An idea just went through my head---always 'dangerous"...but here is what it was.....
What IF-----you dug in (horizontally), in an upright position, some paving stones,
of any kind or shape, maybe even scrap pieces of Granite--as long as they will sit sturdily
upright. You could custom-locate them based on where the most water runs.
Think of these as little "dams"--the water would hit one, and immediately be diverted sideways...
where it would trickle further down and hit another one, etc...This would repeat all the way down
the hillside, slowing down the running water.
Now--since there would not be any water collecting immediately behind these stones,
you could plant something, which would also hide the stones as it grows.
This would give an interesting, "fractured", terracing effect.
Hope you are visualizing this......Some of the stones/pavers could be wider or taller--some not.
Or--two side-by-side. Any pattern you think would work.
You would have to be careful, though, that it does not, actually, dam the water, but allows
it to flow left and right of the stone and continues downhill. Angling them slightly would allow this.
Crazy--maybe---but that was my thought.....Bedtime now--and I bet i will be thinking about this..
Gita
Hi guys, long time no see!! < =D Pheewww, back to work again and so I'm once again busy and tired. Thank GOD it's Spring Break from school, Whee!! =)
Gita, .. yeah, I'm not Happy, but I can totally envision that look you're describing in your post above and it sounds like a really attractive idea! I wonder if Happy would be able to do that... look forward to her response.
We finally got all our (main/big) projects done, and BOY am I relieved!!! Now all that's left is little stuff for DH to get back to when he feels like it. (like organizing his work bench and putting back the baseboard that we had to remove to fit in the new pantry.. heehee).
Here's how the kitchen looks now... with an added bonus. We **had** one pantry cabinet, but it still wasn't enough to hold "overflow" items, so they ended up on a book shelf beside the pantry and on the FLOOR in front of the book shelf. MESSY! We got a new pantry to fix that problem, and it ended up solving another problem as well: My spice bottles! We found a really cool bottle shopping place online and got a ton of matching small and medium bottles for all my spices, then found spice racks on amazon. The racks are attached to the INSIDE of the pantry cabinet door, spices are organized in alpha order, and now all that is organized and neat and tidy, just the way I like it! =)
First pic; finished kitchen with cabinets in place. Next, the mess that used to be next to the single pantry. Third, how it looks now with the additional pantry. Lastly, the spice racks and bottles inside the pantry door. The stuff on the shelves inside is all set back from the edge a few inches so nothing is in the way of the racks/bottles when the door closes. :)
You can probably see the light fixture in the third photo.. the one hanging from the ceiling. That's old and going to get replaced... just another one of the "small" projects on DH's list of "Things To Do". =)
And now, time to hit the shower and get ready for work, Yippee!!!! < =D Y'all have a GREAT day!!
Speedie, you are an organization queen after my own heart. Lookin good.
Speedie, That looks really great. Very nice job.
Speedie: How fantastic! A few years ago we alphabetized all our /herbs/spices, and it made life so much easier. I bet you are a fantastic cook!
Gita: I love your idea of staggered pavers, but it won't work for me. I've already planted the area of the awful front hill that I intend to plant, and it is too steep to retrofit. What I am looking for now is something to break the flow of water as it hits the planted area, which is why I thought of a row of lirope.
Thank you thank you! It really does make cooking life a whole lot easier, but I dunno about how fantastic a cook I might be... I'll just say I can find my spices and herbs a LOT easier now! =)
Happy, DARN! I really liked Gita's idea of staggering the pavers, it's too bad that wouldn't work.... but I bet the Liriope would work for you. Just my personal/professional opinion, but I really do think it would work well.
Looks fabby, speedie!!! Glad you were able to get this done before work got back into full gear, or for that matter school. Woohoo!!!
Speedie -- I'm just a little worried a liriope border will seem too cutesy. I wish I could find a photo of it used that way.
Happy--
I can tell you that once liriope grows into a solid mat--there is nothing "cute" about it,
except while it blooms. Later on, and into the winter--it looks ratty and ugly-at least to me.
I see so much of it around landscaped areas in shopping centers and around office buildings.
Perhaps you can think of something else? How about Blue Rug Juniper?
ado we have a Forum for groundcovers?
Yes, I agree; I may just have to leave well enough alone. I think Juniper requires a bit more care than I am willing to provide. I'm not looking for a ground cover, per se, just something that is tough as nails to demarcate where the planted area ends and the grass begins.
Demarcation is reallly important in how the landscape looks, IMHO. I think you also do not want anything there that will be over a few inches high. Liriope fits that and unlike many other groundcovers , liriope will stay as a narrow border.
Maybe look at those 'strip' type mulch materials, and put one of the bonded strip sort things along the edge, cover lightly with the mulch used on the rest of the bed, to match it. Hoping the strip mulch acts like a filter and slows the water...
Happy, I was at a lecture once where the speaker was talking about the trend to use leland cypress as a fast growing living "privacy fence". She didn't have any objections to leland cypress in general, but recommended for a number of reasons that even with the leland cypress as the primary choice, a few other trees should be mixed in the border along with them. Maybe the same concept could apply to the liriope. The liriope could be your primary choice and the main workhorse for the edging, but you could pick two or three other plants to intersperse at various intervals to break up that long single line. Plant choices to accompany the liriope are not coming to mind, but just throwing the idea out there.
good suggestion aspenhill! (by the way, "aspenhill" is in my computer's spelling dictionary now)
Happy, acorus grass (sweet flag) is supposed to be good for wet areas.
I have both the yellow and white variegated acorus. They don't have pretty blooms like the liriope but look great when massed. I think the white variegated acorus is really pretty. Carex grasses are also supposed to be good with occasional flooding. My new favorite is the Evergold variety.
I've read that the root systems of these grasses are good at absorbing a lot of water at once, so they might help with your erosion problem.
My new project is a mini rain garden at the bottom of a hill where water was pooling, so I've been reading up on it.
To chime in again , it will take a while for liriope musceri (the clumping kind not stricata, the running kind) to form enough of a border edge to prevent erosion so I like Sall's suggestion. As to concerns for maintenance, when the new shoots appear the old fronds will die back and lok 'ratty' But, since this will be for edging a lawn, just set lawn mower at highest setting and trim them before new shoots emerge (like now or last week) Easy peasy. New mulch will cover any stragglers. It takes about 4-5 years before any divide the clumps might even become an issue. And, you can always fill in with more plants as you have time and inclination (oops freudian slope) as you won't have to use climbing gear to do so.
SS Rain gardens can be at the bottom of hills or slopes, or at the top, before runoff erodes and destabilizes the slope/hill.
Happy, I was suggesting a 'rain garden' at the top of your hill to manage the runoff from the back of your property as you described it last year on this thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1261201/
I'm seeing 'rain garden' to the top of hill area on right side of your pic.
Happy, I also was going to suggest a mixture as aspen & SS already have. Acorus, mondo, and liriope all have similar growth habits and a mix would add interest and texture. I really don't think of it as cutesy but rather a demarcation. Mondo can be gotten in black, some of the variegated acorus are quite attractive, and mixing liriope flower colors for even more seasonal color.
I went to get my sutures out of my right hand yesterday and schedule my surgery for my left. The Drs. assistant ask when and I said tomorrow, she made a phone call and said be careful what you wish for. Holly brought me home about an hour ago. LOL I'll be healed up in time for gardening. WaaHoo!!!
Thank you all for your suggestions!
SallyG, what do you mean by "'strip' type mulch materials?" I can't mulch this hill -- it would all wash off -- though I do use pine bark to fill in as it erodes.
Aspenhill: I like the idea of breaking up a single line of border too -- I don't know what else would work there, though; the conditions are brutal, plus whatever it is will probably be hit with the lawn mower a little more than is good for it.
Coleup: OMG, the hill looks so different now, even though nothing is growing yet -- it is so funny to be reminded! I am still not convinced that rain garden plants would survive, let along thrive. It is very very dry at the top of the hill except when it storms -- and then the rain swooshes through fast and doesn't stick around. So I'd need very drought tolerant rain garden plants!
Ric_of_MAF: I wish I could use acorus, but it requires fairly wet conditions, doesn't it? And I've tried mondo grass but it just sat there and didn't do anything for years. I must just be missing the green thumb that the rest of you have! Good luck on your recovery, and may you have green wrists (you already have green thumbs) in time for gardening season.
I've seen a thing that lloks like giant scale spun bonded, in brown rubber mulch. Some shaped to make a circle around trees, I think they make a strip maybe 8-12 inches wide you can roll out... now thinking that grass will eventually grow into it and it will be a major pain down the road...could not find a picture...
freudian slope -chuckle
Thanks. I'm not too keen on rubber. I'll have to keep on the hunt. What I am looking for is something that will break up a rush of water so that it will spread out, rather than creating a deep stream bed through my hill. I thought the spikes of liriope might do that, which is why I was asking about that.
Happy--
Here is the rubber, mulch-looking strip that, I believe, Sally is referring to.
Home depot carries this. Comes in 2 colors--brown and kind of redwood.
NOT cheap--but I imagine it would last a long time. Makes it look like you did a perfect
job of edging and mulching your beds.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Easy-Gardener-10-ft-Edge-Border-EB61045HD/202306174#.UUu6yjdtxMg
Here is the rubber tree surrounds Sally was talking about:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Easy-Gardener-24-in-Brown-Red-Dual-Colored-Tree-Ring-TR24912HD/202269907#.UUu-TjdtxMg
All you need to do is to go to homedepot.com. EVERYTHING you can imagine can be found there.
It is known as "The Endless Aisle!"
As soon as the site opens up--there is a search bar at the top. Put in the best description you can--
and it will come up. You can also put in a SKU #--or a bar code #--or the internet # and find out anything
you need.
If it is sold ONLY on the internet--it will say so.
IF a store actually carries your item, it will say "order on line--pick up in store"...very convenient....
If it says: "Check on hands"--up will come how many of that item any local stores have.
Shipping is usually free with a $45 order.
If it is an "Online Exclusive"--you can now purchase it on line and have it shipped to your nearest
store for pick up...,or ANY store....and NO shipping fees.
A lot of convenience! You do not have to drive around looking who has something...
OK! NO! I do not get a commission for bragging about all the services HD has!!!
In my simple life--I never need any of them anyway.
Gita
What about a border of Sedums and stonecrop? Color, texture, can stand getting it's feet wet for short periods but lends itself to xeriscapes. Many of us have a variety to share. Just mowing to the edge should keep it check.
I realize sedum and stone crop are the same, it's just that my mental image is that one is tall and the other running.
Oh my goodness Gita, I wish you hadn't mentioned that first product, the Edge Border, I really am going to have to try that!! It looks wonderful and looks like it gives EXACTLY the look I have been working for with "real" mulch. (the difference is, I bet I'd be successful with this product!) =) You're going to get me into sooo much trouble!! Hahahahaa!! < =P
Ric, BRILLIANT idea with the Stonecrop! There are enough types of Stonecrop that Happy could get a really nice variety while still enjoying one particular look, but most importantly of all, GREAT function!! Give that man a Kewpie Doll! =D